Because It Tastes Like Friendship
by Raberba girl
Summary: Ienzo is the one most upset about this odd new allergy they've developed, but maybe they can think of something to make him feel better... Platonic fluff for Ansem and his apprentices.


Because It Tastes Like Friendship

(rough draft)

A Kingdom Hearts fanfic by Raberba girl

_10,000 FFN profile hits kiriban for sonicdisney_

Summary: Ienzo is the one most upset about this odd new allergy they've developed, but maybe they can think of something to make him feel better... Platonic fluff for Ansem and his apprentices.

o.o.o

"Tell me again why we're here," Dilan said in annoyance, "rather than patrolling the grounds like we're supposed to be."

"We're here because we're following orders," Aeleus said shortly.

They were both sitting in one of the labs, having sensors taped to them.

"*siiiigh* Fair enough, I suppose. Still, I consider it to be a waste of resources. Why didn't you choose more useless people as a test subjects, Even?"

"Stop whining," Even snapped. "Master Ansem refuses to use anyone for test subjects other than volunteers, and you two were the first to offer your services."

"I wouldn't have if I'd realized it was going to be a waste of time rather than an actual mission."

"Return to your duties, then," said Aeleus. "I will remain."

"Nonsense," Even said before Dilan could answer. "We need two subjects, one for each variable."

"Then just get it over with quickly," Dilan grumbled.

"As you say. Ienzo, bring the tray here."

The boy regarded him. "You're not going to wait for Master Ansem and Xehanort?"

"I sent for them quite some time ago. If they'd wished to come, they would have. Now stop dawdling, and do as you're told!"

"Yes, sir."

o.o.o.o.o

"I hope Even hasn't started without us," the king remarked as they moved swiftly down the corridor to Lab D.

"He surely has, the impatient fool," Xehanort grumbled. "This is all your fault, Braig, _as usual_."

"Hey, stuff isn't _always_ my fault!" Braig protested. Then he grinned. "Only _most_ of the time."

"Yes, well-" Xehanort's sentence dissolved into coughing as the lab door opened and blue smoke started pouring out.

"Okay, THAT was not my fault," Braig declared, eyes watering from the now polluted air.

"Even!" the king shouted as he moved inside. "What happened? Ienzo, are you all right?"

"I'm fine," the boy's voice echoed weakly.

"Master! It was a *cough* miscalculation *cough, cough* I have yet to evaluate the damage, but *cough* I believe we should *COUGH* evacuate the laboratory before *cough*-"

Aeleus came looming up through the smoke, and Even was shoved toward the exit.

Once they were all clear and Dilan had shut the door behind them, Xehanort went to go adjust the ventilation and Ansem bent to put his hands on the boy's shoulders in concern. "Are you injured at all?" he asked, trying to see Ienzo's face through the long bangs.

"No, Master. Merely short of breath at the *cough* moment, but I expect it to pass soon."

Ansem put an arm around him to draw him close, then demanded of Even, "Why didn't you wait for us to arrive?"

"Apologies, Master Ansem," Even said sourly, "I assumed you weren't coming. I didn't realize you were merely-" he glared at Braig "-delayed."

Braig threw up his hands in a wordless, _'Who, me?'_ gesture.

"Not to worry, however. I was prepared for something to go wrong and have another set ready for quick preparation. We merely need wait until the laboratory is accessible enough for me to fetch it."

"Very well."

o.o.o.o.o

Ienzo did not express excitement the way ordinary children did, but his gaze was very intense as he stood by the cook's assistant, close enough that she kept bumping her elbow against him as she scooped. "Stand _back_, young master," she said in exasperation. "I'll have your treat ready soon enough."

Ienzo shuffled a tiny step back, still watching the ice cream like a hawk. The young woman rolled her eyes and tried to adjust her movements.

"Patience, Ienzo," Ansem chuckled, and was answered with a small sigh.

As soon as the dish was in his hands, Ienzo swiveled away and started to walk off, but the king caught his wrist before the first spoonful reached his mouth. Ienzo looked up at him. Then he turned to the girl and said quietly, "Thank you for your service."

"It was my pleasure, young master." Only then was he allowed to commence.

The king and his companion had not even reached the dining room before it became apparent that something was wrong. It started when the boy coughed.

"Are you all right, Ienzo?"

"Yes, Master."

"You're not still ill from the incident earlier, are you?"

"No, Master, I *cough* have recovered, thank you."

Ansem eyed him, but decided to let the matter rest.

Until they were almost at the dining room threshold and he realized how long it had been since the boy's last bite. "Ienzo?"

"...Yes...Master?"

"Really, are you all right?"

"...I think I'm just a little tired, that's all..."

Ansem frowned and laid a hand against his forehead. "Hm, you do feel a little warm..."

"*cough*"

"I think you ought to go to bed as soon as you finish eating."

"Yes, Master," Ienzo murmured, with just the slightest air of relief.

Ansem watched him closely after they had sat down. Ienzo took a few more bites, then set the spoon back in the dish, nudged the remainder of the ice cream away, and rested his face in one hand.

"Ienzo? You are beginning to cause me great concern."

"...I think...I ate too much at dinner...I would like to go rest..."

His voice sounded odd. Ansem frowned and reached to lift the boy's face. "Ienzo!"

"Hm...?"

"Your jaw-"

Ienzo closed his eyes.

"Your face looks like it's swelling- _Tell me_, are you ill?"

"...I don't...feel well...Master..."

Come to think of it, Ansem was beginning to experience some unpleasant sensations himself, particularly a tingling ache in his tongue and lower jaw... He called for a doctor.

o.o.o.o.o

"You're _allergic_ to _ice cream_?" Braig exclaimed, then started laughing.

"The situation is not amusing, Braig," Ansem said sternly. "Ienzo is quite upset. Both of us seem to have developed an allergy regardless of flavor, and the loss is a difficult one for him at his age. You should have more sympathy."

"So, what, you guys are gonna switch over to Snickerdoodles or something?"

"That is not the interesting aspect of it, Braig," Even said impatiently. "Master, do you have any idea what could have caused this allergy?"

"I do, actually," Ansem said slowly. "I tested the others earlier, and they confirmed my suspicions. Even, Braig - head for Lab E. You're going to be tasting a lot of ice cream soon."

"Best experiment ever," Braig decided.

o.o.o.o.o

However, he changed his mind when the experiment was actually in progress. Coughing, gagging, itching, swelling, finally he threw the mint chocolate chip across the room and told them they were the stupidest smart people ever, DUH that blue smoke had made them all allergic to ice cream.

"_Obviously_ that is our theory as well, but we need to determine the exact-"

"Shut up, Even."

Now to find some people who _hadn't_ been exposed to the smoke, since it had been confirmed that the king, Xehanort, Braig, Dilan, Even, Aeleus, and Ienzo had all been affected.

"Dilan, would you wait a moment, please," Ansem called, approaching the front doors with Xehanort, Even, and Ienzo at his heels.

Dilan turned inquiringly, with two sulky-looking teenage boys dangling from his hands.

"What do you have here, Dilan?"

"Those trespassers I've been telling you about," Dilan growled. "Caught them at it _yet again_ - did you ever sign that restraining order?"

Ansem studied the boys. "A persistent pair, aren't you. What were your names, again?"

The redhead spoke up at once in an insolent tone, "I'm L-" but was cut off when his friend kicked him in the ankle and glared. "_Ow_! What's your problem, Is-? OW!"

"Enough," Dilan thundered, shaking them.

Ansem stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Hmm... Xehanort."

"Yes, sir?"

"Try the ice cream on them."

The boy in blue looked suspicious, though the redhead perked up. "Ice cream?"

As expected, neither of them showed any adverse reaction to any of the flavors of ice cream they tried.

"Thank you, boys, that was very helpful. Dilan, please escort them out now, and bring me that restraining order."

"Hey! You're not gonna show us your secret-? _Ow_!"

o.o.o.o.o

"Ienzo," Dilan said. "You were supposed to buy organic cage-free brown eggs, a carton of the standard white eggs, Gala apples, and Macintosh. I see none of these things here, which means that Master Ansem cannot perform the experiment, and nowhere on the list did we request black-eyed peas and cherry pie."

"..."

"Ienzo, _why_ did you buy black-eyed peas and cherry pie?"

"...I don't know." Ienzo looked at the scrap of paper in his hand. "They're not on the list."

"_Exactly_."

"...Did I buy these?"

"Ienzo, go back out and follow instructions before I lose my patience."

o.o.o

For heaven's sake, the child was supposed to be feeding the specimens, not sitting there letting them lick his face. "Ienzo!" Xehanort shoved Ein and Zwei back into their cages, where they whimpered unhappily, then whirled to the boy. "Ienzo! What on earth do you think you're doing?!"

"...Cleaning the specimen cages."

"Ienzo, you're supposed to be _feeding_ the specimens. You don't even have any cleaning equipment."

"...Oh."

Xehanort smacked a hand upside the back of his head. "Wake _up_, boy!"

"Yes, sir..."

o.o.o

The little red-haired girl watched him curiously for a while, the boy who was sitting there gazing into the fountain. Then she went up to him and put on her biggest smile. "Hi! I'm Kairi. What's your name?"

"...I'm Ienzo."

"It's nice to meet you, Ienzo! Are you sad?"

"I suppose so."

"I bet a flower will make you feel better, they're so sweet and pretty. Can I put a flower in your hair?"

"Do as you like."

"Yay! None of the other boys ever let me put flowers in their hair. Do you feel better now, Ienzo?"

"...You said that flowers are sweet?"

"Yup!"

"...Were you _only_ referring to the scent?"

"Huh?"

o.o.o

"Man, you've been moping for days," Braig observed. "Lighten up, kid! There's already way too many emos around here, we don't need more. Come on, I'll take you somewhere fun."

Unfortunately, his and Ienzo's definitions of 'fun' differed drastically.

o.o.o

Aeleus gave the boy a puzzle to help take his mind away from troubling thoughts. Ienzo solved it in two minutes and then went back to being depressed.

o.o.o

"Ienzo," Ansem said gently. "There are other sweets you like, aren't there? There's no reason to dwell on the loss of this specific one. You'll make yourself ill, acting like this. Come, let's try this 'cookie cake' they sent up from the kitchen, and see if you like it."

"...My parents used to take me out for ice cream every Friday after school."

"...Oh."

o.o.o

CRASH

Even whirled and looked at his young assistant in horror. "Ienzo! What have you _done_?!"

Ienzo looked down at all the broken glass now littering the floor around him. "...Dropped all the test tubes?" he said, as if it was a question.

"Get your head out of the clouds, boy!" Thank goodness they had all been empty, at least. "_Clean it up_."

"Yes, sir." Ienzo knelt and reached out. Then he just kind of sat there for a while.

Even finally turned back, noticing a lack of cleaning-up sounds. "_Ienzo_!" Seizing the boy's shoulders, he shook him a little to make him drop the large shards of broken glass he was holding, then dragged him to his feet and over to the sink. Ienzo closed his eyes as if expecting a rant, but none came.

Even washed and bandaged his cut hands in seething silence. Then he shoved Ienzo into a chair, pushed his hair out of his face, gripped his chin to make him meet his eyes, and hissed, "This _needs to stop_. It needs to STOP. You've been acting like a _lackwit_, and if you don't get control of yourself _now_, we are going to start _treating_ you like one-" He stopped because tears had begun welling in Ienzo's eyes and were now dripping down his face. "Why are you _crying_?" Even said in exasperation.

"I don't know..."

"Ienzo, it's ICE CREAM. It is no significant loss, nothing compared to what you've endured in the past. You should be _above_ this."

"I *sniffle* know..."

Even looked at him for a long moment. Then he sighed and put his arms around the boy.

He was not prepared for Ienzo to throw himself into his embrace, burst into full-blown tears, and start sobbing out a string of difficult-to-distinguish words. "I know I shouldn't let it bother me but I can't control my feelings, just thinking that I'll _never taste it again_, except it's not so much the mere taste because it's true there are other sweet-flavored things but it's just not the _same_ and I was trying to think why and you see Master Ansem always rewards me when I do well and it's so hard to keep up with you when you're so much _better_ than me and I thought if I worked hard and studied I could be just as good because it doesn't matter how old I am but it _does_, it does, I can't focus on things like you do and I can't work as long as you do but I feel so out of place and unwanted among others my age because I _know_ I'm smarter than them and they're idiots but they still talk about things I don't understand and they act like I'm strange and don't want me but I suppose from their point of view I _am_ strange because I'm so different from them but I don't WANT to be like them because they're so stupid and care about all the wrong things and get so worked up about things that don't even matter and they don't understand what I say I suppose because my vocabulary is more elevated than theirs but it's because they don't _read_, they don't READ, the books are _right there_, there's an entire library that the public has free access to but they don't even _care_, I only feel at home here with you all but it's still difficult and I like it but sometimes it's a relief to just relax with Master Ansem and some ice cream but we _can't have ice cream anymore_, and thinking of how I lost it forever keeps making me think of, of other, of other things I lost f-forever and, and, I don't, I...I..." Then he gave up and just cried.

"...Hm." Even was not sure what to do except crouch down into a more comfortable position and keep holding him, so he did.

"...I really miss ice cream, Professor," Ienzo whispered after a long time.

"Yes, I can see that."

o.o.o.o.o

Ienzo seemed to recover soon after that. He was still somewhat withdrawn and less talkative than before, but he resumed performing his duties with competence and punctuality, and was once more able to usefully participate in his master's work.

"Are you sure you're all right, Ienzo?" Ansem asked more than once.

"Yes, Master." Ienzo continued to offer the tray, his face expressionless.

"...I hope you save some room for dessert tonight. The cook wants us to try her new strawberry pie recipe; it's supposed to have something called 'Jell-O' in it."

"..."

Ansem sighed. "Maybe you should take the rest of the day off."

"I apologize deeply for having failed your expectations."

"That's not what I _meant_!"

o.o.o.o.o

"Man, what's with you and ice?" Braig laughed, coming over to peer at the concoction. "You're almost as bad as that Demyx kid and fountains."

"Braig, get out of here, your assistance is not required."

"Hey, this kind of looks like ice cream..."

"Don't you have a gate to guard, or a maid to flirt with?"

"Dude," Braig said, looking at the recipe pinned to the cork board on top of other ones that were heavily annotated, "you're gonna need a _lot_ more sugar than that." He picked up a container of white granules.

"Braig, _no_!" Even shouted, but it was too late. "You IDIOT, that was salt, not sugar! _This_ is why I tell Master Ansem over and over again that a laboratory is no place for brainless, muscle-bound, nosy _palace guards_...!" Even shoved Braig away and started fussing with the little side-experiment he'd started in his spare time. "...Hm."

"What?" Braig said idly, inspecting a human skull sitting on the shelf.

"This actually...doesn't taste so very bad..."

o.o.o.o.o

"Yes, yes, greedy things," Ienzo cooed at the enthusiastic Ein and Zwei. "It will be ready in _just a moment_. And no complaining about the lack of fish tonight, please - orders are orders, and you're not pets, you know."

"Ienzo," Ansem finally spoke, smiling.

"Oh - I didn't see you there, Master. Wait just one moment, I have the reports ready..." Ienzo hurried over to the printer, stapled the papers that had just emerged, gathered up several more packets that were on the table nearby, and brought them to the king. "I also took the liberty of footnoting the results with appropriate references to the previous trials. I thought it might save you some time during the review."

"Why, thank you, Ienzo, that will be quite helpful."

"It also occurred to me that the C-T models might be causing interference in the FF-7 group due to the adjusted A-string tuning. You might consider the use of Z-A at some point - they're older models, but it might give more accurate readings, considering the nature of that test group."

"Why, I hadn't even thought of that. You're so clever, Ienzo - but I hope you're not overworking yourself just for a reward, since I'd come to tell you that you've already earned it."

"It was merely what I thought of in the course of my regular work, not something done out of extra effort..."

Ansem chuckled and held out a hand. "Come."

Ienzo, not yet weighed down with worry about the schemes of his fellow apprentices, remained confident and outspoken for some time. He even _smiled_ on occasion, usually when he was enjoying some sea-salt ice cream, and Ansem made a point to express his great appreciation to Even. "I am so grateful that there's at least one ice cream flavor Ienzo can still enjoy. You don't know how much it means to me to see the boy in high spirits again."

"I am honored to serve you, Master. Now, with your permission, I would like to return to work, since these beams are on a timer."

o.o.o.o.o

"Ienzo!"

He turned and waited politely as the little girl ran up to greet him.

"Hi!" Kairi said, beaming.

"Hello."

"Hm...you feel better now, don't you," she said, studying him.

"Yes."

"I knew it! I can tell," she said happily. "But you know, flowers are still good for you even when you're happy."

"Is that so?"

"Yup!" Kairi tucked a primrose behind his ear. "There you go!"

"Thank you."

"Say hi to the king for me."

"All right."

"Can I walk with you back to the castle?"

"I have no objection."

"Does that mean yes?"

"Yes."

"Yay!" She took his hand and chattered the entire way back. He did not think that any of it was important in the least, but he somehow enjoyed her companionship anyway.

**Twelve years later...**

Ienzo put his cup down in alarm. "_What_ did you say was in this?"

"Soda and ice cream," Sora repeated happily. "You want a refill?"

"What _kind_ of ice cream?" Even demanded.

Lea laughed. "Well, we've got sea-salt over here-"

"Duh," Roxas said, then took another huge swallow.

"I think you guys have cookies 'n cream," Riku said, glancing into Even's cup.

"We're _allergic_," Ienzo exclaimed in dismay.

Sora looked horrified. "You can't eat ice cream?!"

"Axel, what's allergic?" Xion asked.

"Flaming pants, I'm not off the clock even when I'm at a party," Lea groaned.

"What's your reaction?" Riku asked.

The five former apprentices all looked at each other. After a moment, Even drank more, and Ienzo reluctantly followed suit. Naminé put a hand on Ienzo's arm in concern. They all waited.

"I don't feel any ill effects," Ienzo finally observed.

"Perhaps it was a temporary condition that ran its course. We must investigate this further, Ienzo."

"Yes, Professor."

Braig laughed and took another swig. "Maybe being Nobodies cured us of it."

"Morbid thought," Aeleus muttered.

"So you're not allergic to ice cream after all?" Naminé asked, looking hopeful.

"That appears to be correct."

"I'm glad," Kairi said warmly.

Ienzo finished his cup of ice cream punch, but later confessed privately to Ansem that he still liked the sea-salt flavor best.

o.o.o

Author's Notes: sonicdisney was the one who claimed my first FFN kiriban, and she requested a fic about the apprentices having allergies. XD This thing was WAY too long in coming, I'm halfway to 20,000 hits already; but here is the rough draft, at least! I hope you like it, dear! 8) :hug:


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